Operators are increasingly turning to sites in the US Midwest to boost commercial production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The projects are designed to help meet rising demand from the aviation sector for low-to-no-carbon jet fuel required by airlines to achieve various net-zero emissions targets.
Three major grassroots SAF projects are under development across the region, including two by DG Fuels LLC (DGF)—one each in Nebraska and Minnesota—and one in Illinois by Avina Clean Hydrogen Inc. (ACH). The projects, if completed, would add more than 500 million gal/year combined to US SAF production by 2030.
In addition to presenting a brief overview of the proposed projects, this article examines the operators’ selection of technologies, production plans, and selection of service providers and partners for the projects.
DGF’s Midwest expansion plan
With development of its first US SAF project, at a cost of nearly $5-billion, now well under way along the west bank of the Mississippi River, near Moonshine, La., in St. James Parish, DGF is advancing plans for similar projects in Nebraska and Minnesota.
In second-half 2024, DGF revealed it will build its first US Midwest SAF production complex in Phelps County, Neb.
Launched in cooperation with Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, and the state government’s Nebraska BioEconomy Initiative, and Phelps County Development Corp. (PCDC), DGF’s proposed plant will process lower-value agricultural by-products—or residual biomass—procured and trucked to the site from local farmers. It is expected to produce 193 million gal/year of zero- or low-carbon dioxide (CO2) lifecycle-emissions SAF conforming to ASTM International standards as a renewables-based, lower-density, drop-in replacement fuel for existing aircraft engines.
At an overall planned investment of about $5.5 billion, PCDC said the Phelps County SAF plant specifically will have a biomass-feedstock processing capacity of 1.2 million tonnes/year (tpy), the bulk of which will consist of corn stover, the nubs left over after harvest that otherwise would be left on the ground as waste.
This feedstock selection is a central element of the project, which includes commitments by DGF and Nebraska BioEconomy to help local farmers develop new revenue streams from parts of their crops that would otherwise be considered low-value products or waste.
In a project update issued in February 2025, PCDC said harvesting and processing the stover will neither disrupt the planting process nor harm soil quality. Stover harvesting will be cycled from year to year to preserve nutrients in the soil. DGF will also enable collection of soil samples to confirm either that the ground is healthy enough for the stover to be collected or to determine how much should be left in the ground to boost soil health.
Without investing in the health of local farms, DGF cannot maintain long-term production, the project partners said.
Selected as the proposed plant location by DGF for its consistently productive farmland and abundant yields, the Phelps County region stands to generate millions of dollars annually in additional on-farm income by converting corn stover into SAF, according to PCDC.
Alongside providing 650 permanent jobs, PCDC said the project will offset the drain on local aquifers by transporting water required for production via rail The company will also offer a local community coordinator and include what it describes as a comprehensive multimillion-dollar community benefits package to directly enhance Phelps County’s infrastructure, quality of life, and strategic plan.
By incorporating various forms of clean-hydrogen feedstock to produce nearly zero-carbon fuel, DG Fuels said its baseline production process for the project will result in little-to-no local environmental emissions to the atmosphere or waters.
Ahead of the early 2025 project update, DGF in December 2024 let a contract to Maire SPA’s Rome-based NextChem SPA to deliver technology licensing for the Phelps County plant. As part of a broader early engineering, licensing, and process-design package (PDP) agreement, the waste-to-chemical segment of NextChem’s MyRechemical SRL will license its proprietary NX Circular technology for the proposed plant’s gasification and gas treatment units that, together, will be able to process the locally sourced corn stover into suitable feedstock, said Maire, which licensed the same technology for DGF’s Louisiana SAF plant.
The licensing and PDP phase of the agreement, however, remains subject to DGF’s official notice to proceed with the Phelps County plant, the service provider said.
While project partners have yet to reveal a window for when DGF will take final investment decision (FID) on the project, the proposed Nebraska plant is tentatively scheduled for startup in 2029-30, at which point combined online capacity of DGF’s Louisiana and Nebraska plants could potentially account for 8% of the US mandate of 3 million gal/year of 2030 SAF production, according to Maire.
Following its earlier 2024 announcement of the Nebraska project, DGF in late-2024 unveiled plans for a second US Midwest SAF plant to be built in Moorhead, Clay County, Minn.
Also estimated to require an overall investment of about $5 billion, the Moorhead SAF project would be the first SAF plant to be built exclusively as part of the Minnesota SAF Hub. The hub is a public-private partnership which aims to build the first SAF site of sufficient scale to demonstrate the viability of replacing conventional jet fuel on a global basis.
Developed in cooperation with the state of Minnesota and the Minnesota SAF Hub partnership, the proposed Moorhead plant would use a feedstock of timber and agricultural waste—including corn stover—procured from local suppliers, to produce 193 million gal/year of SAF to serve the Great Lakes region, DGF said.
Scheduled for a 4-year construction window, the Moorhead plant, if approved, would achieve startup in 2030, according to the partners.
As with its Nebraska counterpart, the proposed plant would add 650 new jobs to the local economy as well as feature DGF’s baseline production process to result in little-to-no local environmental emissions, DGF said. The region’s abundant farmlands and forests also would enable the operator closer proximity to and partnership opportunities with requisite feedstock suppliers.
Peter Frosch, president and chief executive officer of the Greater MSP Partnership—which created and leads the Minnesota SAF Hub—said production from the planned Moorhead plant would result in nearly doubling the Greater MSP Partnership-Minnesota SAF Hub’s joint initial goal of delivering 100 million gal/year of SAF to Minnesota-St. Paul International Airport by 2030.
Details regarding specific technologies to be licensed for the proposed Moorhead project and DGF’s timeline for reaching FID on the plant have yet to be revealed.
DGF’s proposed Louisiana, Nebraska, and Minnesota projects are the first of 11 similar US-based plants the operator previously said it plans to develop to help meet rising demand from the aviation sector as part of airlines’ plans to achieve their individual decarbonization goals by 2050.
ACH’s Illinois project
In late 2024, green-hydrogen and green-ammonia producer ACH revealed detailed plans for building in southwest Illinois its first-ever complex dedicated exclusively to SAF production.
Developed in partnership with Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), the anticipated plant will be configured to process a variety of feedstocks such as ethanol and other long-chain fatty alcohols to produce 120 million gal/year of SAF, the parties said in late-December 2024.
To benefit in part from tax breaks granted under DCEO’s Reimagining Energy and Vehicles (REV) program that provides competitive incentives for in-state clean energy projects, the proposed $850-million complex also will include an on-site 55-Mw electrolyzer capable of producing 7,000 tonnes/day of green hydrogen for use in the SAF plant, ACH said.
To be situated in proximity to six Class I railroads and major jet-fuel pipelines, and with direct access to major hubs like Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and other US Midwest airports, ACH said the complex will specifically be equipped to process 240,000 gal/year of low-carbon ethanol into ASTM-certified SAF that will prevent 25 million tonnes of CO2 emissions across its operational lifespan.
When ACH first announced the Illinois SAF complex in April 2024 at what was a still-to-be-determined US Midwest location, the operator confirmed having achieved a series of project milestones, including:
- Completion of preliminary front-end engineering and design (FEED).
- Start of FEED.
- Securing of funding commitments pending FID.
- Entrance into long-term agreements with unidentified ethanol suppliers for a major portion of the complex’s low carbon-intensity ethanol feedstock requirements.
- Ongoing advanced discussions with unidentified investors for project funding upon FID.
In August 2024, ACH let a contract to KBR Inc. to deliver technology licensing, proprietary engineering design, and FEED for the US Midwest SAF complex. As part of that agreement, KBR will license Swedish Biofuels AB-developed proprietary PureSAF alcohol-to-jet technology that, in addition to processing ethanol, can also convert mixed alcohols, CO2, and synthesis gas to SAF, the companies confirmed.
Now in late-stage development, the proposed Illinois SAF complex—which will provide 150 new permanent jobs—is scheduled for FID by mid 2025, with construction to begin second-half 2025. The project is scheduled to begin commercial operations during first-half 2028.
Robert Brelsford | Downstream Editor
Robert Brelsford joined Oil & Gas Journal in October 2013 as downstream technology editor after 8 years as a crude oil price and news reporter on spot crude transactions at the US Gulf Coast, West Coast, Canadian, and Latin American markets. He holds a BA (2000) in English from Rice University and an MS (2003) in education and social policy from Northwestern University.